Chvala is released after 9-month sentence

Madison -- Two days after Democrats retook control of the state Senate, former Majority Leader Chuck Chvala was released today after serving a nine-month sentence for felony corruption.

Democrats lost control of the Senate in November 2002, just weeks after Chvala and three Assembly Republican leaders were charged with ordering aides to campaign on state time. All four - along with former Sen. Brian Burke (D-Milwaukee), who had been charged earlier - were convicted over the last year on those charges.

Chvala pleaded guilty last year to two felonies as part of a deal with prosecutors and was sentenced to nine months of jail with work-release privileges. Since May, he has served that sentence from home on electronic monitoring.

He was taken off that monitoring this morning, according to the Dane County Sheriff's Department.

Democrats captured four Senate seats in Tuesday's election, giving them an 18-15 majority. The party also made gains in the Republican-controlled Assembly, capturing seven seats and possibly eight. (A recount is expected in the Janesville area, where Democrat Kim Hixson holds a nine-vote margin over Republican Rep. Debi Towns.)

In five of the seven seats that Democrats won, they knocked out Republicans. The Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, a government watchdog group, noted today that all five were mentioned in evidence produced in the trial of former Assembly Speaker Scott Jensen (R-Town of Brookfield), who was convicted earlier this year for his role in the scandal over using state resources to campaign.

The five are Steve Freese of Dodgeville, Rob Kreibich of Eau Claire, Judy Krawczyk of Green Bay, Gabe Loeffelholz of Platteville and Mark Pettis of Hertel.